Felipe Contepomi said that he was offside when he rushed Dan Parks in the
closing minutes and caused him to miss the dropped goal attempt that would
have seen Scotland win the match and set up a showdown with England.

The Argentina captain pressured Parks's better right side. The fly-half then switched to his left foot and badly fluffed the chance. Contepomi put it all down to experience. "Maybe it's the benefit of being the captain and not being penalised," he said after his side beat Scotland 13-12.

"It was a very tough decision to make and fortunately [referee] Wayne Barnes had his back to me and couldn't see if I was offside or not."

Parks himself knew he was in trouble before the ball had even arrived.

"Sean [Lamont] went back to the short side and I was exposed because there was no one on my left and no one on my right, and they were flying up on the outside. I didn't want the ball when I got it, partly because Sean had left. I just wanted to keep working to the posts, but the ball came out. You have to take Contepomi being offside on the chin.''

Parks said he would have done the same. ''You play on the edge of the law. I haven't seen the replay but I was certainly under a lot of pressure, and if you get away with it, fair play."

He is right, Scotland were robbed, but great sides lock the door before the burglar can get in. Scotland should have put the game away earlier, although Barnes needed an offside call from the sideline.

When Scotland coach Andy Robinson was asked if he thought Contepomi was offside, he replied: "What was the referee's decision? In all sports there's a lot of ifs and buts. It's about small margins.

"He didn't give the call. Whether we would have liked him to have given it, whether we believe he should have, whether we're disappointed, he didn't – that's sport. We've all had decisions where it went the other way."

As an openside flanker for Bath, and a very good one, Robinson lived on the wrong side of the offside line. He palmed a few into the opposition net in his time. He was not about to throw up his arms and invoke Maradona's hand of God.

Robinson added: "Wayne is a quality ref. I've had a chat and congratulated him on his game." That comment was followed with a wry smile off camera. But this Scotland squad are not a bunch of whingers.

When captain Rory Lawson was asked if he talked to Barnes about Argentina slowing down the game with injury time-outs, he said: "I had a discussion and he understood that we wanted to play at tempo. The refs have been briefed. In the first half there were stages when we had gone a number of phases and at the next set-piece there were guys going down." Lawson added that Argentina had suffered a number of injuries so they were not just faking it.

Lawson said Scotland had blown three good try-scoring opportunities. Robinson said: "You have to finish sides like Argentina off. They are far too experienced and you saw what it meant to them. I say to the Scotland supporters, I know you will be hurting at the result, but you should be proud of how your side played."

When Contepomi was told that Robinson had suggested that Scotland had been the superior team, he said: "Maybe he's right. They were probably better than us, but rugby is an 80-minute game. We were probably better than England, but there were 30 seconds in that match when we lost it." Fair play to Argentina's captain, he was certainly onside after the match.